Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Surprisingly Enjoyable

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

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For as often as I read mystery thrillers like this, I so rarely enjoy them. And there are so many reasons I shouldn’t have enjoyed In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, but I still did, in spite of all of them. The main character, Jess, is an overachiever preparing to go back to her 10 year college reunion at Duquette, a college which is “just a step below the Ivy League.” In college she was part of a golden group called the East House Seven […]

Connection is Made

The Verifiers by Jane Pek

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In an ideal world, this would be the first of a 10-book series. There’s certainly room here for at least one sequel and more. Which doesn’t mean Jane Pek needs to do this. Series eventually run out of steam as one can only recycle the same characters and plots for so long. But I really loved this writer’s style, her protagonist, and the way she uses New York City. But it’s not just that this was written by a city-dwelling millennial who loves mysteries (as Jane Pek […]

War and Hell

The Last by Hanna Jameson

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So…nuclear war. Been in the news a lot these days. How about that, eh? I never knew how good I had it as a kid in the (mostly) harmonious 90s. The Iron Curtain fell, the Cold War was over, 9/11 had not yet happened and the only existential threat to America was our collectively stupid reaction to the President’s affair with an intern. Wish somebody told me those would be the good ol days for the States. Anyway, I came upon this book because I […]

Ozark Noir

Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt

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Catholic guilt is often seen as a cultural experience of many Americans who grew up in ethnic enclaves that practiced Catholicism. I’m not sure if it is a universal Catholic experience (maybe it is?) but it’s prevalent in a lot of Catholics I know who were born and raised in the States. Catholic guilt is a recurring theme in media; explored in great detail in the films of Martin Scorsese. It’s old hat at this point but as millions of Americans come from Catholic backgrounds […]

Stripped

Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski

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I sat on this review for most of the day, unsure of what to make of this book. I think I’m gonna land on the side of “good” and give it a 4-star seal of approval. I think a lot of people are coming into this looking at the subplot of crime involving a stripper and assume this is a Hustler$-esque pulp tale. It’s not that at all. Instead, it’s how people’s lives revolve around a popular stripper who has gone missing, including, but not limited […]

February Leftovers 2022

Trouble Is What I Do by Walter Mosley

Sleeping With Strangers by Eric Jerome Dickey

The Trees by Percival Everett

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Democracy by Carol Anderson

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These are my February leftovers, i.e. books that I read but didn’t give a full review either cuz I didn’t have time or didn’t have much to say. There are fewer than normal this month because Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois took up most of my time. Trouble Is What I Do **** Another good entry in the Leonid McGill series. It’s short and that streamlines the story more than its predecessors. I still read these as if Leonid is dead and NYC is his purgatory where […]



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